Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff"Our services are free; we do not make a profit. Parents of troubled teens ourselves, PURE strives to create a safe haven of truth and reality." - Sue Scheff - August 13th, 2007 (fukkin surreal)

I haven't bought The Discarded Ones by James Tipper. AFAIK he went to CEDU in CA from 79 - 81 and I would probably buy the book if the author was sent to RMA or was sent to CEDU during my time ( When I was sent to RMA) .

Caroline Wolf was a former CEDU student and knew all the tricks of the trade. She had a unique way of Indicting children in raps. Caroline would scream at girls for "selling their ass" and / or "running the streets of LA." She was married to Randy Eide (former CEDU student) when I was at RMA. Randy had an inappropriate relationship with a female student and Randy & Caroline divorced shortly thereafter.

Muppeteer

I mentioned I would get back here and offer my insight and speculation as to the why's and how's Elan evolved...so, very briefly, here goes...

Joe Ricci was the self-proclaimed "God of Therapy," but by the early and into the mid 1980's, I can easily speculate Elan was falling behind CEDU in terms of enrollment and reputation. CEDU had multiple campuses, Elan only one (Poland Springs) by 1985. The Elan population had declining numbers from state placements, there were no adults in treatment (or very few who remained after reaching 18 years of age), and high staff turnover rate was damaging the consitency of the so-called theraputic process. By the time I was foisted off there, Elan was hiring new staff from the college ranks, namely Lynda Roy and Anne Flynn, among others. These "next generation" staff members were bringing fresh ideas and concepts that had never been present in Elan. For example, the Propheets. Ricci must have seen the financial success Mel Wasserman, et. al., were enjoying out west, and wanted a piece of that pie. He even was talking about opening a west coast campus to compete more directly with CEDU. And, of course, it was also around this time he decided he would run for Governor.

Another competitor, Straight. Inc, had even been endorsed by Nancy Reagan, had multiple campuses in multiple states, and was another source of siphoning off Ricci's lucrative client base. So I really do believe that Ricci was feeling the heat from his competitors, and being so competitive himself, was willing to try a few new ideas to return Elan to it's "glory days" of the 1970's, when it really was on the cutting edge of TC's.

So again, by the time I was there, "primal scream" was not a regular activity. Yes, there was still plenty of screaming in encounter groups, GM's, V/R's etc, but the primal scream sessions, and presumably some of the other 1970's techniques, were being abandoned in favor of experimentation with some of the new age humanistic approaches. I can even recall a few "oxygen therapy" sessions complete with nasal cannula and guided imagrey occuring in the dorms in E8. Turning off (unplugging) electronic devices was one of the things that *had* to be done prior to these sessions, as E8 was a proven tinderbox. (see attic fire accusations discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, that's not really my story to tell)

So, Elan changed alot, became more in-line with CEDU with the advent of new staff with no personal program experience, but the folks they brought in, specifically Roy and Flynn, proved to quite adept at "getting it," so much so that I really felt for a long time they must have been enrolled at some point, but no, they were not.

Finally, as an aside, I want to mention Ms. Curley's book again. "Alice Quinn" in that book is *not* a real name, nor is it meant to portray Alice Dunn (another former Elan staff/director). No, Alice Quinn in Ms. Curley's book is clearly Anne Flynn. No doubt about it. And if Ms. Curley's book is an accurate portrayal (which I believe it is, to a "T"), then it would appear Anne Flynn's notorious and legendary mood swings were the direct result of the cocaine she and Ricci were reportedly abusing frequently in the mid-1908's.

Caroline Wolf was a former CEDU student and knew all the tricks of the trade. She had a unique way of Indicting children in raps. Caroline would scream at girls for "selling their ass" and / or "running the streets of LA." She was married to Randy Eide (former CEDU student) when I was at RMA. Randy had an inappropriate relationship with a female student and Randy & Caroline divorced shortly thereafter.

Reminds me of what somebody I was in program with once said. He said they turned us into animals. That we fed on each other to survive. And that's indeed what we did. You had to attack others, to report on others, to demonstrate your loyalty in an effort to avoid being suspected or attacked yourself (but at the same time, you couldn't over-do it or you would be accused of sucking up). There was nothing at all healthy about it. All it did was teach people to be cynical, distrustful, and to learn the best way to eviscerate somebody verbally by discovering and exploiting their weaknesses.

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

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Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff"Our services are free; we do not make a profit. Parents of troubled teens ourselves, PURE strives to create a safe haven of truth and reality." - Sue Scheff - August 13th, 2007 (fukkin surreal)

Requiring the detainees to hold each other accountable is/was a part of 3 springs. It served the purpose of using the detainees to keep each other in check by playing on their desires to want to go home.

It's a control mechanism driven by the bait and switch method. Very simple to use, works well for the most part, and it is easy to implement with poorly trained individuals. It's not exclusive to programs either, I'm sure we've all experienced the occasional tin pot two bit dictator type at work or elsewhere.

Muppeteer

I am not aware of any "above board" political connections stemming from Elan until Bill Diamond came to be employed. Not saying there were none, I just don't know of them. Frankly, I don't even know when Diamond started working there.

However, people were certainly afraid of Joe Ricci, some because they were certain he had ties to organized crime (true or not), others, because of his propensity to sue the snot out of anyone he perceived was working against his interests. And, of course, he was a crazy sonofabitch.

It would not surprise me to learn he was throwing kickbacks to local politicians and others with power/influence in Maine, but I have nothing concrete to support that idea.

Plus, remember, Elan and other places like it were viewed in mostly positive terms, and they did an excellent job of keeping the dark secrets, secret. And Davidson was well-respected enough, that, again, folks likely couldn't imagine him being involved in an illegal child abuse factory, no matter the allegations or plaintive cries from early(er) residents who may have spoken out.

They were successfully sued by at least one former resident, if I recall my reading material correctly, but again, there were probably some non-disclosure agreements that went along with that.

There were rumors amongst the residents in 1985/6 that someone had died in the ring in the 70's, much as there was also institutional folklore about Skakel/Moxley during my time.

When I read that Father Bob was quoted at one time (in a story in the Hartford Courant) denying that staff in the mid-1980's were aware of the Skakel scandal, I just have to shake my head. I recall a very different scene playing out, and I believe staff was well aware of it. One staff member alluded to it to me directly, occasionally, (let's call it two or three times in the 16 months I was there) as a means of control, without ever directly naming Skakel, not that I was even aware of that awfulness at the time I was there. He was mentioned as a former resident who was a potential killer, the sharded golf club as weapon, and referred to as "Mike." Fear of your fellow residents was a common tactic in securing the resident/staff bonding necessary for the program to function as intended, and the Skakel story was used in loose terms to foster and grow that fear, at least in my case.

Sorry to veer a bit off the political connections theme, I hope someone out there may have more information about that...

So what political factors allowed Elan to escape scrutiny for so long? What connections let them get away with murder?

bumps

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Life is a very wonderful thing.\' said Dr. Branom... \'The processes of life, the make- up of the human organism, who can fully understand these miracles?... What is happening to you now is what should happen to any normal healthy human organism...You are being made sane, you are being made healthy. \'That I will not have, \' I said, \'nor can understand at all. What you\'ve been doing is to make me feel very very ill.\' -Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange